Fire in the Sky

Just after 10pm last night a huge meteor lit up the skies over Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and several other midwestern states, inciting calls into local police and news stations from thousands of witnesses. The video above shows footage from various locations and cities…some really incredible stuff! It’s incredible how bright it is! There were even reports of a loud “prolonged” sonic boom from witnesses, confirmed by the National Weather Service.

It’s estimated that the bright blast released an energy equivalent of 20 tons of TNT.

Meteorite hunters are currently searching for the object’s landing site and any possible remaining bits.

Read more on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog on Discovery.com, or on the Madison, WI ABC news site here.

UPDATE: Pieces of the meteorite have been found already…see Nancy’s article on Universe Today for photos and details. One interesting bit is they don’t think it’s from the Virginid group but instead may be a piece of an asteroid!